La Sombra [Ben Hargreeves]

Mom Did What Now?

"Allison found something on the tapes." I was rudely shaken awake by Luther.

"What?" I rubbed the sleep out of my eye. With a yawn, I sat up in my bed.

"It's about Mom." Luther told me. I blinked in confusion. "The night Dad died."

I quickly got out of bed and followed Luther to the surveillance room. Allison was standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed staring at the televisions. She turned to face us with a frown.

"Allison, what's going on?" I asked.

"You need to see this." Allison moved towards the televisions and pressed play.

I stood next to her and Luther, watching the surveillance video of Dad and Mom. Dad was sitting on his bed while Mom handed him something to drink. When he grabbed the cup, Dad started to wave an arm at Mom before he fell back onto the bed. Mom turned around and left the room.

"Rewind that. I didn't really get a good look." I licked my lips anxiously. I sat down in one of the open chairs and interlaced my fingers together.

Allison gave me a small nod and reminded the video. We watched it again, the video replaying the same scene.

"It just looks like he had a heart attack or something." I ran a hand through my knotted hair. Scrunching my nose as my one of fingers got caught in a knot. Tugging at the knot, until it was gone, I grabbed the hair tie that was around my wrist and pulled my hair into a high ponytail.

"No. There's something else happening. I know it." Luther told Allison to replay it again. She did play it a couple more times.

"Play it again." Luther sighed.

"We've watched it over and over, Luther." Allison shook her head and rewinded the tape again. "It's the same every time."

"Er..." Luther glanced at Allison and I, "What is she doing? The tea. Did she poison him?"

"Uh," Allison sat down in the ledge of the cabinet as she sighed. "I don't know."

"Well I do know. Mom didn't poison him." I scoffed. Luther sighed. "Why would Mom even do that? That's not in her programming."

"Where did you find this?" Luther asked Allison.

"I was looking at old footage of us as kids, and I saw the tape just sitting there." Allison told him. She started to make her way towards us. Allison placed her hands on the back of my chair.

"Yeah, Dad must have started using the security system again." Luther assumed. "He was getting more and more paranoid. He thought people were out to get him. Well...I guess maybe he was right."

"But Mom?" Allison questioned. "I mean she's not capable of...is she?"

"No, guys, come on! It's Mom we're talking about." I looked at my siblings. "She would never do that. She loves us and she loved Dad."